Metal fabric.



N. B. CLARK.

METAL FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2, 1909.

1,128,659, Patented Feb. 16, 1915.

TED snares an METAL FABRIC.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 16, 1915..

Application filed March 2, 1909. Serial No. 480,976.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

" Be it known that I, NORRIS ELMORE CLARK,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Plainville, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Metal Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates particularly to what is generally known as expanded metal.

The special object is to provide great rigidity and holding power, for instance, for such structures as concrete floors and roofs and plastered side walls and partitions.

It comprises, in its preferred form, the combination of non-expanded parallel rods or beam-like members and expanded meshwork or lathing integral therewith as hereinafter set forth. The parallel rods or beams as I shall call them, for convenience are preferably formed by bending or folding strips of metal into channel-like form so as to afford members which are quite stifi and rigid to resist transverse pres sure. They constitute the rafters when the fabric is used in a roof, the joists in a floor structure and the studs in a wall. Preferably the walls or sides of the beams are perforated at intervals so as to permit the plaster, cement or mortar from one side to pass through and be interlocked with that on the other. The portions punched out'or some of them may be left integral along one edge of the perforations and bent over so as to form projecting fingers for attachment purposes. The lathing or'rneshwork consists'of sections of zigzag bent strands connected to each other and arranged on edge, the general direction of the strands of the sections being inclined relative to the beams and the strands of adjacent sections being oppositely inclined. The sides of the beams extend substantially transverse to the plane of the fabric and with their edges inclined at 'substantially the same angles as the edgewise inclination of the adjacent connecting strands. In the preferred form shown, there are two sections of expanded meshwork united midwaybetw'een each two adjacent beams and the strands of the two sections are inclined edgewise in reverse directions, the direction of inclination of the strands of each section corresponding to the direction of inclination of that edge of the adjacent beam with which they are united.

Figure 1, is an elevation of a fragment of fabric of my invention. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of a structure embodying the invention. Fig. d is a more extended section of my fabric but on a smaller scale. Fig. 5 is a section of a modification. Figs. 6 and 7 are sections of modified types of beams. Fig. 8 is a section showing another modification of beam.

The beams such as 1 and 2 preferably extending longitudinally are connected by a reticulated section or sections such as 3 and 4. Each of these sections consists of a plurality of zig-zag strands such as 5 and 6 connected'to each other at a plurality of points as at 7 and 8. The two sections 3 and 4 are united along the strip 9. The general direction of the strands in section 3 is inclined upward and to the left while the direction of the strands in the adjacent section 4 is inclined upward and to the right. The strands are all turned on edge relative to the general plane of the fabric and the strip 9 is substantially'in the plane of the fabric. This arrangement enables'the plasterer to apply plaster with his trowel moving in any direction up or down or sidewise. The edgewise inclination of the strands in section 3 corresponds to the direction of inclination of the side edge of the beam 1 with, which they are integrally united (see Fig. 3). The same relation exists between the inclination of the strands in section 4 and the inclination of the side edge of the beam 2 with which they are united. It will thus be seen that the strands of the two sections 3 and 4 are inclined in reverse directions on opposite sides of the center line between the adjacent beams.

The front and back edges of the beams are preferably left imperforate but the sides I prefer to perforate as at 10, 11 and 12. These perforations may be of any size and shape but I prefer to have them rather close together so that the plaster will interlock at a large number of places. This avoids any dan er of fracture. The beams thus give grea transverse stiffness without formmg lines of cleavage. Some advantage is had by indenting the sides so as to form recesses but the effect is not so good as where the metal is actually punched through so that when plaster is applied on one side some of it passes through to the other side. I prefer to make at least some of the perforations in the different beams in line with each other laterally so that fastening clips, wires and devices or transverse reinforcing rods such as 13 can be readily inserted as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. In forming such perf0ra tions as 11 the metal may be bent outwardly and left in the form of a projecting finger 14 for the purpose of attaching other sheets of lath, for instance, as'l5 in Fig. 3. The vertical distance or spacing between the fingers will depend upon how rigid the con-' nection of the lath 15 must be.

The fabric may contain any number of the parallel beams such as 1, 2 and 16 in Fig. -l but in any case I prefer to have a beam at each edge of the sheet. This is easier to handle and assemble. The spacing between the beams will depend upon the rigidity required for the work.

In Fig. 5 I have shown single thickness beams 17 and 18 only at the edges of the sheet and with expanded sections 19,

20 and 21 with intermediate connecting strips 22 and .23. Sheets of this fabric can conveniently be placed back to back and secured together for forming a double thickness wall.

Instead of forming the fabric from a plain sheet of metal a special rolled section may be used so that a bar '24: forms the ridge of the beam as shown in Fig. 6. A suitable section can also be used to furnish bars :25 and :26 at the edges of a beam as shown in Fig. 7. In Fig. 8 the beam ".27 is folded so as to project equally on both sides of the expanded portion of the fabric. Other variations may be made without departing from my invention.

, The fabric is particularly adapted for wall constructions, the beam member such as l and 2 fori'ning the studding so that the structure may be erected very rapidly and at small expense by simply securing the sheets at the top and bottom.

The fabric may be conveniently made by slitting a sheet alon to the direction 0 length of the sheet, stretching or expanding it and then folding or bending the margins and such intermediate parallel strips as are to constitute the beam members. The slitting may be done first and then the bending and expansion simultaneously. The perforations such as 10, 11 and 12 may be made at the same time as the slitting. The bending or corrugation may be done first and the slitting and expansio'n afterward. In this case however the perforations 10, 11, etc., should be made before forming the beams. While it is preferable for the sake of economy to merely slit 7 lines inclined relative or indent the sheet preparatory to expansion, the invention would not be avoided by simply substituting slots for the slits and removing some of the metal as is sometimes done in expanded metal manufacture.

What I claim is l. A metal fabric comprising parallel non-expanded beam members integrally connected along their edges by expanded sections, each section consisting of continuous zigzag bent strands turned edgewise to the general plane of the fabric and connected to each other in edgewise relation at the points of the bends in said zigzag strands, the beam members all projecting from the same surface of the expanded sections and the ed'gewise disposed zigzagstrands being parallel to each other and extending diagonally in respect to the beams to thereby provide zigzag plaster supporting shelves.

v 2. A metallic fabric for reinforcing concrete comprising longitudinal deep non-expanded channel-like beam members, and expanded "meshwork connecting the adjacent edges of said beam members and consisting of two sections united midway between said beam members, each section comprising a plurality of narrow strands, adjacent strands being connected together to form a plurality of rows of small openings in each section, the main surfaces of all of the strands of each section being inclined somewhat edgewise to the general plane of the fabric and the strands of the two sections being inclined edgewise in opposite directions away from the line of connection'between the two sections.

3. A sheet metal fabric comprising longitudinal non-expanded channel-like beam members, a longitudinal central strip midway between the beam members, integral expanded meshwork connecting the said beam members and central strip and consisting of two sections united to the beam members and to the central strip midway between the said beam members, each section comprising a plurality of narrow strands turned edgewise to the general plane of the sheet and the strands in the two sections being inclined in opposite directions away from the central strip which unites the two sections.

4. A metallic fabric comprising a plurality of substantially parallel, non-expandtion extending in the same direction, each strand being integrally united with the adjacent strands at a plurality of points, the points of connections between the expanded sections and the beam members lying in the transversely inclined sides of the beam members.

5. A metallic fabric comprising a plurality of substantially parallel, non-expanded beam members and expanded meshwork integrally connecting said beam members.

a part of each beam member projecting transversely beyond the plane of the expanded meshwork, 'the said expanded meshwork consisting of a plurality of relatively narrow zigzag strands, adjacent strands being connected together at a plurality of points and forming a plurality of rows of diamond-shaped openings, the strands being inclined edgewise relative to the general fiat plane of the structure, and the direction of edgewise inclination of the strands adjacent one side of each beaminember being the reverse of the direction ofifedgewise inclination of the strands-adjacent the opposite side of said beam member.

(5. A metallic fabric coniprising a plurality of deep folded, channel-like, non-expanded beammembers and integrally connecting expanded meshwork, the sides of the beam members extending transversely and with their edges inclined relative to the general plane of the expanded meshwork, the said meshwork consisting of narrow strands connected to form relatively small openings and arranged inclined edgewise relative to the general plane of the meshwork, the direction of inclination of the strands on one side of the center line between two beam members being the reverse of the direction of inclination of the strands on the opposite side of said center line, the direction of inclination of the side edges of the beam members corresponding to the direction of inclination of the strands connected to the said respective side edges.

7. A metallic fabric, comprising a plurality of deep, folded, channel-like, non-expanded beam members and integrally connecting expanded meshwork, the sides of the beam members extending transversely and with their edges inclined relative to the general plane of the expanded meshwork, the said meshwork being directly connected to the inclined side edges of said beam members and consisting of narrow strands connected to form relatively small diamondshaped openings and said strands being arranged inclined somewhat edgewise relative to the general plane of the meshwork, the direction of inclination of the side edges of the beam members corresponding to the direction of edgewise inclination of the strands of those parts of said meshwork which are adjacent the respective sides of said beam members.

S. A metallic fabric comprising special expanded diamond meshwork sections andrelatively deep non-expandad, channel-like beam members projecting from the plane of the meshwork sections, the meshwork sections consisting of relatively narrow strands arranged inclined relative to the plane of the meshwork, said fabric being formed by slitting sections of a sheet with inclined rows of short slits in staggered arrangement leaving strands along lines inclined relative to the edges of the sheet and leaving unslitted portions at the edges and between adjacent slitted sections, the strands of adjacent sections being inclined in opposite directions, opening and spreading the slitted sections so as to turn the strands of adjacent sections edgewise in opposite directions and bending the alternate unslitted sections into channel-like form with their edges inclined substantially the same as the strands connected thereto.

9. An expanded metal fabric comprising alternate non-expanded deep-ribbed beam members and integrally connecting expanded meshwork sections with an unslitted strip extending along the center of each expanded section, the strands of the meshwork on opposite sides of each central strip being inclined somewhat edgewise in opposite directions and formed by slitting certain sections of a sheet in staggered arrangement and leaving alternate broad and narrow 11nslitted portions, the slitting being inclined relative to the unslitted portions, then open-.

ing and spreading each slitted section from its center in opposite directions away from its narrow central strip bringing the strands on edge in opposite directions and bending the broad unslitted strips into channel form with the sides inclined somewhat.

NORRIS ELMORE CLARK.

Witnesses Rom. S. ALLYN, J. CLYDE RIPLEY. 

